College Football: The BCS at 10 years

Given that this is the the ten year anniversary of the BCS in college football, there is new reason to discuss the current format and debate about a possible playoff system.

I have always stood by keeping everything the way it is and maybe adding a four or six team playoff. This will help keep the regular season meaningful while settling some of the debates we have on an annual basis about the top five teams.

Joe Paterno, who is 81 years old and may be too old to coach, is an avid supporter of a playoff. He believes in a playoff so much that he does not vote in the Coaches Poll for the BCS rankings.

He may be an old fashioned old man, but he is a forward thinking old man. Good for him and, even though I don't agree 100%, its nice to hear this from him.

Hey, and maybe we do agree!

Joe never states exactly what he wants, in terms of structure for the playoff, but he clearly supports a playoff of some sort. If he is for a 16 team playoff then we disagree, if he is for a plus one or six team playoff, we may be on the same page.

In addition to Joe's comments, there are many articles on ESPN.comabout the BCS at ten years old, and how things have changed and/or stayed the same.

There is a great ranking of the last ten BCS champions. This list has the 2001 Miami Hurricanes as the top seed. When looking at that roster makes complete sense. This roster reads as a who's who of the top draft picks in the last 6-8 years.

What I found most interesting were the links that show how each conference has fared during the BCS era, and ranks each conferences top players, moments, and games.

The Big Tenis listed as the conference that has fared the best given how many BCS games their teams have been in. In the last seven years, the Big Ten has had two teams participating in the BCS championship.

Through the BCS, the Big Ten has managed to keep its ties to the granddaddy of them all, The Rose Bowl.They have also successfully participated in all of the other BCS games and have had the opportunity to win a BCS Championship. It’s pretty easy to understand why the Big Ten is the leader in the anti-playoff campaign.

At the ten year point, the BCS has managed to be a huge commercial and monetary success, while being one of the most criticized and debated systems in all sports.